


Magic in the Mirror

by LigerCat



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Adoption, Custody Battle, Family Secrets, Future Fic, Gen, Loneliness, Magic, Next Generation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Portals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:42:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22555771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LigerCat/pseuds/LigerCat
Summary: Amanda and her brothers are sent off to spend the winter break with their Uncle Phineas.
Relationships: Amanda (Phineas and Ferb) & Phineas Flynn, Candace Flynn/Jeremy Johnson, Past Phineas Flynn/Isabella Garcia-Shapiro
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Don't own.

Amanda stared out the window at the passing fields, feeling her eyelids start to droop at the repetitive scenery of mostly bare dirt with an occasional lake of green. Sighing, she twisted in the passenger seat to face her mom.

"Are you positive he's the only person who can watch us?" There had to be another option. Having to spend the entire winter break away from her friends would be a nightmare. She couldn't even go to the virtual mall since her 41G service wouldn't be available for another three months. It almost made her regret begging her mom to upgrade her service as soon as it was possible.

Candace took her eyes off the road long enough to glance at her. The self-driving feature was on, but her hands still rested lightly on the wheel. "I don't know why you're so against this. I thought you liked your uncle." The soft, calm tone of her voice did nothing to change Amanda's mind.

She did like her uncle when he'd come to visit them. He was fun and one of the only people who could get her brothers to actually do something. But he was completely nuts, definitely not the type of person she wanted to be with for an extended period of time. "He believes he went to the moon and Mars."

When her mom pressed her lips together in a thin line, Amanda rolled her eyes.

"People visit the moon all the time."

"They didn't twenty years ago." That was back when you had to go through training and stuff to go into space. Besides, he would've been like nine. They still didn't let kids travel to the moon. "I know Grandma says he has an active imagination, but people with active imaginations don't believe they actually did the stuff they made up."

Candace's hands tighten on the wheel, even as her arms stay lose enough to move with its automatic turns. "It's more complicated than that."

"Then explain it to me!"

"Why are you yelling?"

The question made Amanda look at the backseat. Her two ten-year-olds brothers had taken out their earbuds and the movie on the holographic screen in front of them was paused.

Xavier scratched his head, making his blond hair stick up. "We can't hear the movie over it."

Fred nodded his agreement.

"Just go back to your movie. Amanda won't be yelling anymore, isn't that right Amanda?" Candace didn't look at her, but her voice had taken on an edge.

"Right," Amanda mumbled. Propping up her arm on the door, she rested her head in her hand as she went back to watching the farms pass by. What had made her uncle move to a place like this? He was a social person, somewhere was sparsely populated as the country didn't seem like the kind of place he'd want to live.

The city, as crowded as it was, seemed more his speed.

She let her eyes slid closed and daydreams take her away from the mind-numbing boredom that came with looking at too much nature.

In her mind's eye, she was climbing the icy peaks of Kilimanjaro, the freezing temperatures dangerously low. Her climbing partner, the overly handsome Jason from her math class, is about to suggest they find somewhere to rest and cuddle to build up their body heat. He opened his mouth--

"We're here."

Amanda's eyes popped open at the sound of her mom's voice coming out of her crush's mouth. Then widened when she saw what was in front of them. "Did we hover through a time portal on the way?"

The two-story brick house stretched out across more land than her high school did and screamed 1900's. Buzzing down the window, she leaned her head out, red hair whipped across her face before she pushed it out of the way. Vines worked their way up the front of the building, wrapping around wide windows. Leafless trees lined the sides of the cobblestone driveway that probably hadn't been actually driven on for half a decade.

Amanda pulled her head back in and put the window back up.

"Still dreading staying here?" Candace disengaged the self-driving, slowly plotting the hovercar the rest of the way herself.

Other than shrugging one shoulder, she didn't reply. With a house so big that calling it a house felt like she was insulting it, she could go the entire stay without having to see her brothers or her uncle. And, knowing her brothers, they'd want to find a nice, sunny spot in the yard and not move except for food and bathroom breaks until it got too cold for even their warmest jackets to keep them comfy.

They'd do the same thing if they were back at home. What a waste. Though, it might be less of a waste than usual this time. She didn't know what else they'd be able to do around here.

Tall wooden doors slid open, vanishing into the walls on each side when the car reached the built-in garage. They closed silently behind them but it might as well have been with a bang.

Amanda swallowed. This was it, the point of no return.


	2. Chapter 2

They parked, the car lowering down to its rest on its wheels. Candace was out first and herding Xavier and Fred from the backseat.

Amanda stared forward at the wooden walls. Her shoulders slumped. Three weeks. It couldn't be that hard to find something here to keep her entertained that long, right?

Someone tapped on the window.

She glanced over at the grinning face of her Uncle Phineas pressed against the glass.

Seeing her looking at him, he waved. "You gonna spend all day in there or give your favorite uncle a hug?"

Sighing, she opened the door and climbed out. "Who says you're my favorite?"

He rocked back on his heels, his smile never slipping. "Second favorite?"

"Least favorite." It took some concentration to not smile back.

"Same thing." He shrugged. "Unless you've got another uncle no one told me about?"

"Nope, and it's really not." Amanda closed the door before letting him pull her into a hug. It would've been bone-crushing if he actually had the muscle mass for that. She returned the hug that felt about thirty seconds too long, like always.

When Phineas finally let go, he gave her a small smile. "Every time I see you, you're taller."

She let the smile win out. "Afraid I'm going to pass you up?"

"Oh, no, I'm not afraid of that. Being afraid of something that's bound to happen and is not about to kill you is just useless." His brow furrowed. "Or permanently maim you, 'cause that can be a problem too. 'Course you don't have to worry about that. At least, I hope you don't. If you do, I'm really gonna question your mom's list of rules as to what we can and can't do while you're here."

"She gave you a list?" Her laid back, agree-to-almost-everything mom actually made a list of things they weren't allowed to do? What did she think was going to happen while they were here? Uncle Phineas might have been crazy, but he'd never let them do anything their mom wouldn't let them do.

"Yes, yes she did. It's--"

"Phineas!"

Both Amanda and Phineas turned at Candace's yell.

The glare vanished from her face so fast that Amanda wondered if she was imagining things. The expression that replaced it was her normal, relaxed one. Except her eyes showed a hint of steel that normally only came out when Amanda did something she wasn't supposed to. Like try to pierce her ears herself after watching a video tutorial online.

"Could I talk to you a moment?"

"Shoot." Phineas didn't move from the spot.

The hint of steel became a block. "Alone."

"Oh. Oh, right." He laughed lightly. "Sorry. Amanda, why don't you go pick out a room? The second floor's full of them."

"Yeah, sure." It should be easy for her to find a good one then. She didn't bother to grab any bags from the car before starting towards the open door that led inside the house. Whatever was going on with them, she wasn't sure she wanted any part of it. She had enough sibling drama with her own brothers.

She paused when she stepped into the hallway. While she had visited her uncle before, she hadn't since he moved here. And this place was huge. One wrong turn and she could be lost to wander the halls for days. No food. Her only source of water coming from when she managed to find a bathroom.

With that in mind, she touched the wall on her right as she continued on. It was basic maze solving technique that really only worked for basic mazes, the ones with islands it would only work for sometimes and if you were in a four-dimensional maze, you were just plain out of luck, she'd found that out the hard way, but it was better than nothing.

Compared to the outside it was kind of... dull. Plain off-white walls stretched out in front of her as far as she could see, with brown doors set into the walls here and there. She swore she could see her reflection in the polished floors. How much work did it take to make wood reflective? Maybe it just looked like wood.

Amanda had been walking forever when goosebumps suddenly popped up on her sleeve covered arms.

It was quiet.

The garage was too far away for her mom and Uncle Phineas' voices to carry. Wherever her brothers were, she couldn't hear them either.

Even her sneakers hardly made any noise as she walked.

If this was a horror movie, this would be a moment when something would jump out and scare her. If not worse.

But this wasn't a horror movie. This wasn't a movie, period. It was real life and that kind of stuff didn't happen in real life.

Still, she kept glancing at the open doorways and tightly shut doors, half-expecting some killer scarecrow or a ghost to burst out.

It wasn't like it was always loud at home, they lived in the suburbs, not the city, and her brothers weren't that noisy, but she was starting to think it wasn't the silence getting to her.

It was the place. It was so bare. So empty. No pictures or artwork. No rugs. Even the rooms she poked her head into looked like no one had stepped foot in them for weeks except to dust and stuff. Every house she'd never been in had felt lived in, even the seriously clean ones that you didn't want to step foot in for fear of dirtying it with your presence. This place didn't.

Amanda stopped, her fingers falling from the wall.

Why was her uncle doing here?


End file.
